A pursuit of ontological truth in Aristotle's philosophy

Jin, D. (2025)

Doctoral Thesis

How to interpret the concept of truth is a much debated topic in the history of philosophy. The issues related to truth involve language, reality and their correspondence relations. My journey into the concept of truth begins with the contemporary discussion of the classical correspondence theory of truth, but I am directly inspired by Aristotle. He spent his entire life exploring truth: the task of philosophers is to reveal the inherent connection between truth and being. In Aristotle's works, alongside the classical correspondence theory, we find a more fundamental reading of the concept of truth, which I have called ontological truth here. In Metaphysics Θ.10, Aristotle names truth and falsehood as being in the strictest sense. I am intrigued by this statement and wonder if we can find an alternative way to interpret Aristotle's philosophical works as a human pursuit of ontological truth.

• The correspondence theroy of truth
• Being in the strictest sense
• The ontological independence

• All authors: Jin, D.
• Supervisor: Haas, F.A.J. de
• Co-supervisor: Berg, R.M. van den
• Committee: McAllister, J.W.; Schaar, M.S. van der; Szaif, J.M.; Bonazzi, M.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Institute for Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2025-01-15
• Sponsorship: China Scholarship Council from 2018 to 2021